Want a quaint New England town with stately colonial homes? This is it.

Pumpkin patches, apple orchards, hot cider and hayrides are close by for this town's 9,300 residents.

Instead of driving to Litchfield County for your foliage, to the Berkshires for your Indian corn, or to eastern Connecticut for your corn stalks, a 20-minute drive north of Hartford lets you get it all in Granby.

"Granby is really New England at its finest in the fall," said Ed Dombroskas, executive director for the tourism division of the state Department of Economic Development. "Granby has maintained its colonial quaintness."

Lots of towns in the state offer pick-your-own apple orchards, but Granby's combination of scenic views, country charm and agricultural base makes it unique, tourism officials said.

"The basic natural beauty, the range of trees, the types of trees are spectacular," Dombroskas said.

The leaves in the heavily wooded area along Route 189 are just beginning to turn, but, no matter what the season, the ride from Granby Center gives people a view of rural life that would fit well in a Norman Rockwell painting.

"Everything that has to do with agriculture can still be found in Granby," said Rick Macsuga, marketing and inspection representative for the state Department of Agriculture. "The whole ride to Granby is countrylike. Route 189 is gorgeous."

The cost of all this scenery and autumn ambience is minimal. Most visitors get something free -- whether it's a hayride to the pumpkin patch at Hidden Acres Farm, hot cider at Allen's Cider Mill

or an apple at Lost Acres Orchard.

Then again, it's not like people stay in this humble hamlet to make a lot of money.

"The people who are the farmers in Granby, I don't believe are doing it because it's so economically rewarding. I think they're doing it because it's rewarding in other ways ... the association with the land and the people," said Francis G. Armentano, town community development director.

The scene at Lost Acres Farm, for example, looks much as it did at the turn of the century. Apples sit in wooden baskets on woven tablecloths. Pumpkins, gourds, mums, dried flowers and cornstalks are scattered about on the dirt floor wooden benches and shelves. On quiet days, crickets and rustling leaves are the farm's only sounds.

And Lost Acres Orchard, on Lost Acres Road off Route 189, has developed a loyal following since the Wutka family opened it in 1977. Local resident Michael Guarco said he takes his four children for cider and apple picking every couple of weeks.

"Ginny is excellent with the kids," Guarco said of owner Virginia Wutka. "If I take the kids, I take them to Wutka's. They ask to go. ... They fill their little jugs" with cider, he said.

The town's other orchard, Bushy Hill Orchard on Bushy Hill Road, specializes in pick-your-own produce. Their dwarf apple trees don't grow much taller than 6 feet, so the picking is easy.

Paul Demko of Simsbury was stuffing a bag with apples one recent afternoon, as he has several times a season for 13 years. He said he keeps coming back "because I'm allowed to pick my own apples." What he doesn't eat, he gives to his children and grandchildren.

For a hayride to a pumpkin patch, stop by Hidden Acres Farm on East Street. The weekend hayrides to their pick-your-own pumpkin patch can be fun as well as beautiful. The Evonsion family also grows its own mums and carries 32 varieties, including uncommon shades of cranberry, amber and purple.

Allen's Cider Mill, on Mountain Road, which has been in the family since 1919, sells cold cider all week. Visitors may get a chance to watch the cider being made, something families have done for generations, owner Lois Allen Longley said.

"We are now on the fourth generation of people bringing their children," she said.

And all the cider and sightseeing comes without putting too much wear and tear on the family car.

"I think towns like Granby [are] where you get the whole experience," said Brynn Williams, group travel coordinator for Connecticut's North Central Tourism Bureau. "You don't have to drive from city to city. [In Granby,] you can see how they press the cider, you can get your pumpkin.